IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/reveco/v27y2013icp611-620.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Information asymmetry and the cost of equity capital

Author

Listed:
  • He, William Peng
  • Lepone, Andrew
  • Leung, Henry

Abstract

This study examines the relation between information asymmetry and the cost of equity capital of firms listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. We calculate the ex ante cost of equity capital for constituent companies of the S&P/ASX 200 Index. The bid–ask spread of the companies is decomposed to find the adverse selection component, which is used to measure the information asymmetry of the company. We control for factors generally known to influence the required return on equity, such as sector, beta, firm size, book-to-market, analyst coverage and analyst earnings forecast dispersion. This study documents a significant and positive relation between information asymmetry and ex ante investor's required rate of return. We also find that earnings forecast dispersion increases ex ante cost of equity capital, while analyst coverage tends to decrease the return required by investors. This is consistent with the expectation that cost of capital increases with higher levels of information uncertainty and asymmetry.

Suggested Citation

  • He, William Peng & Lepone, Andrew & Leung, Henry, 2013. "Information asymmetry and the cost of equity capital," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 611-620.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:reveco:v:27:y:2013:i:c:p:611-620
    DOI: 10.1016/j.iref.2013.03.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S105905601300018X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.iref.2013.03.001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hansen, Lars Peter, 1982. "Large Sample Properties of Generalized Method of Moments Estimators," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(4), pages 1029-1054, July.
    2. Utpal Bhattacharya & Hazem Daouk, 2002. "The World Price of Insider Trading," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(1), pages 75-108, February.
    3. Glosten, Lawrence R. & Harris, Lawrence E., 1988. "Estimating the components of the bid/ask spread," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 123-142, May.
    4. Grossman, Sanford J & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1980. "On the Impossibility of Informationally Efficient Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(3), pages 393-408, June.
    5. Luzi Hail, 2002. "The impact of voluntary corporate disclosures on the ex-ante cost of capital for Swiss firms," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(4), pages 741-773.
    6. Andrews, Donald W K, 1991. "Heteroskedasticity and Autocorrelation Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(3), pages 817-858, May.
    7. Edwin J. Elton, 1999. "Presidential Address: Expected Return, Realized Return, and Asset Pricing Tests," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(4), pages 1199-1220, August.
    8. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 1997. "Industry costs of equity," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 153-193, February.
    9. Leuz, C & Verrecchia, RE, 2000. "The economic consequences of increased disclosure," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38, pages 91-124.
    10. Jiang Wang, 1993. "A Model of Intertemporal Asset Prices Under Asymmetric Information," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 60(2), pages 249-282.
    11. Brockman, Paul & Chung, Dennis Y, 1999. "Bid-Ask Spread Components in an Order-Driven Environment," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 22(2), pages 227-246, Summer.
    12. Lin, Ji-Chai & Sanger, Gary C & Booth, G Geoffrey, 1995. "Trade Size and Components of the Bid-Ask Spread," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 8(4), pages 1153-1183.
    13. James Claus & Jacob Thomas, 2001. "Equity Premia as Low as Three Percent? Evidence from Analysts' Earnings Forecasts for Domestic and International Stock Markets," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(5), pages 1629-1666, October.
    14. Richard A. Lambert & Christian Leuz & Robert E. Verrecchia, 2011. "Information Asymmetry, Information Precision, and the Cost of Capital," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 16(1), pages 1-29.
    15. Luzi Hail & Christian Leuz, 2006. "International Differences in the Cost of Equity Capital: Do Legal Institutions and Securities Regulation Matter?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(3), pages 485-531, June.
    16. Clemen, Robert T., 1989. "Combining forecasts: A review and annotated bibliography," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 5(4), pages 559-583.
    17. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 1993. "Common risk factors in the returns on stocks and bonds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 3-56, February.
    18. Seha M. Tinic, 1972. "The Economics of Liquidity Services," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 86(1), pages 79-93.
    19. René M. Stulz, 1999. "Golbalization, Corporate Finance, And The Cost Of Capital," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 12(3), pages 8-25, September.
    20. Diamond, Douglas W & Verrecchia, Robert E, 1991. "Disclosure, Liquidity, and the Cost of Capital," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 46(4), pages 1325-1359, September.
    21. Newey, Whitney & West, Kenneth, 2014. "A simple, positive semi-definite, heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation consistent covariance matrix," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 33(1), pages 125-132.
    22. Leland, Hayne E, 1992. "Insider Trading: Should It Be Prohibited?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(4), pages 859-887, August.
    23. Stoll, Hans R, 1989. " Inferring the Components of the Bid-Ask Spread: Theory and Empirical Tests," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 44(1), pages 115-134, March.
    24. Christine A. Botosan & Marlene A. Plumlee, 2002. "A Re‐examination of Disclosure Level and the Expected Cost of Equity Capital," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 21-40, March.
    25. David Easley & Maureen O'hara, 2004. "Information and the Cost of Capital," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 59(4), pages 1553-1583, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Luo, Qi & Li, Hui & Zhang, Biao, 2015. "Financing constraints and the cost of equity: Evidence on the moral hazard of the controlling shareholder," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 99-106.
    2. Liu, Wei & Tian, Gary Gang, 2022. "Controlling shareholder share pledging and the cost of equity capital: Evidence from China," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(6).
    3. Danny Zhao‐Xiang Huang, 2022. "An integrated theory of the firm approach to environmental, social and governance performance," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(S1), pages 1567-1598, April.
    4. Chen, Lin & Qin, Lu & Zhu, Hongquan, 2015. "Opinion divergence, unexpected trading volume and stock returns: Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 119-127.
    5. Márquez, Elena & Nieto, Belén & Rubio, Gonzalo, 2014. "Stock returns with consumption and illiquidity risks," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 57-74.
    6. Al-Hadi, Ahmed & Taylor, Grantley & Hossain, Mahmud, 2015. "Disaggregation, auditor conservatism and implied cost of equity capital: An international evidence from the GCC," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 66-98.
    7. Zeeshan Ahmed & Qasim Saleem & Abdul Qadir Bhatti & Bilal Ahmed, 2020. "Corporate Leverage Transmission under Information Asymmetry: Evidence from Non-financial Firms of Pakistan," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 10(4), pages 176-184.
    8. Huynh, Toan Luu Duc & Wu, Junjie & Duong, An Trong, 2020. "Information Asymmetry and firm value: Is Vietnam different?," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 21(C).
    9. Zhang, Ran & Li, Yanru & Liu, Yingzhu, 2021. "Green bond issuance and corporate cost of capital," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    10. Justyna Franc-Dąbrowska & Magdalena Mądra-Sawicka & Joanna Bereżnicka, 2018. "Cost of Agricultural Business Equity Capital—A Theoretical and Empirical Study for Poland," Economies, MDPI, vol. 6(3), pages 1-15, June.
    11. Schreder, Max, 2018. "Idiosyncratic information and the cost of equity capital: A meta-analytic review of the literature," Journal of Accounting Literature, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 142-172.
    12. Diana Hashim Syarif & Sugeng Wahyudi & Irene Rini Demi Pangestuti, 2019. "Financial Constraints and Cost of Equity: Empirical Study of Shariah Compliant Firms in Indonesia," Research in World Economy, Research in World Economy, Sciedu Press, vol. 10(3), pages 371-381, December.
    13. Fosu, Samuel & Danso, Albert & Ahmad, Wasim & Coffie, William, 2016. "Information asymmetry, leverage and firm value: Do crisis and growth matter?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 140-150.
    14. Shen, Carl Hsin-han, 2014. "Pecking order, access to public debt market, and information asymmetry," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 291-306.
    15. Asad Ali Rind & Aitzaz Ahsan Alias Sarang & Ameet Kumar & Muhammad Shahbaz, 2023. "Does financial fraud affect implied cost of equity?," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(4), pages 4139-4155, October.
    16. Wang, Qian & Su, Zhongnan & Chen, Xinyang, 2021. "Information disclosure and the default risk of online peer-to-peer lending platform," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    17. Bipin Sony & Saumitra Bhadurib, 2020. "Information asymmetry and the choice between rights issue and private placement of equity," BASE University Working Papers 01/2020, BASE University, Bengaluru, India.
    18. Natalia Kelchevskaya & Ilia Chernenko & Ekaterina Popova, 2017. "The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on the Investment Attractiveness of the Russian Companies," Economy of region, Centre for Economic Security, Institute of Economics of Ural Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, vol. 1(1), pages 157-169.
    19. Lopomo Beteto Wegner, Danilo, 2015. "Government insurance, information, and asset prices," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 165-183.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Teresa Chu & In-Mu Haw & Bryan Lee & Woody Wu, 2014. "Cost of equity capital, control divergence, and institutions: the international evidence," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 43(3), pages 483-527, October.
    2. Luzi Hail & Christian Leuz, 2006. "International Differences in the Cost of Equity Capital: Do Legal Institutions and Securities Regulation Matter?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(3), pages 485-531, June.
    3. Barth, Mary E. & Konchitchki, Yaniv & Landsman, Wayne R., 2013. "Cost of capital and earnings transparency," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 206-224.
    4. Ernstberger, Jürgen & Vogler, Oliver, 2008. "Analyzing the German accounting triad -- "Accounting Premium" for IAS/IFRS and U.S. GAAP vis-à-vis German GAAP?," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 339-386, December.
    5. Lin, Zih-Ying & Chang, Chuang-Chang & Wang, Yaw-Huei, 2018. "The impacts of asymmetric information and short sales on the illiquidity risk premium in the stock option market," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 152-165.
    6. Rjiba, Hatem & Saadi, Samir & Boubaker, Sabri & Ding, Xiaoya (Sara), 2021. "Annual report readability and the cost of equity capital," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    7. Ferris, Stephen P. & Javakhadze, David & Rajkovic, Tijana, 2017. "The international effect of managerial social capital on the cost of equity," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 69-84.
    8. Luong, Thanh Son & Qiu, Buhui & Wu, Yi (Ava), 2021. "Does it pay to be socially connected with wall street brokerages? Evidence from cost of equity," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    9. Hail, Luzi & Leuz, Christian, 2005. "Cost of Capital and Cash Flow Effects of U.S. Cross Listings," Working Papers 05-2, University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School, Weiss Center.
    10. Boubaker, Sabri & Boubakri, Narjess & Grira, Jocelyn & Guizani, Asma, 2018. "Sovereign wealth funds and equity pricing: Evidence from implied cost of equity of publicly traded targets," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 202-224.
    11. Schreder, Max, 2018. "Idiosyncratic information and the cost of equity capital: A meta-analytic review of the literature," Journal of Accounting Literature, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 142-172.
    12. Jeong-Bon Kim & Haina Shi & Jing Zhou, 2014. "International Financial Reporting Standards, institutional infrastructures, and implied cost of equity capital around the world," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 42(3), pages 469-507, April.
    13. Attig, Najah & Guedhami, Omrane & Mishra, Dev, 2008. "Multiple large shareholders, control contests, and implied cost of equity," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(5), pages 721-737, December.
    14. Najah Attig & Sean Cleary & Sadok El Ghoul & Omrane Guedhami, 2013. "Institutional Investment Horizons and the Cost of Equity Capital," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 42(2), pages 441-477, June.
    15. Terry Shevlin, 2013. "Some personal observations on the debate on the link between financial reporting quality and the cost of equity capital," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 38(3), pages 447-473, December.
    16. Abdullah Mamun & Dev Mishra, 2012. "Industry Merger Intensity and Cost of Capital," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 12(4), pages 469-490, December.
    17. Norio Kitagawa & Hyonok Kim & Masatoshi Goto, 2011. "The effect of non-financial risk information on the evaluation of implied cost of capitals," Discussion Papers 2011-07, Kobe University, Graduate School of Business Administration, revised Feb 2011.
    18. Nikolaev, V. & van Lent, L.A.G.M., 2005. "The Endogeneity Bias in the Relation Between Cost-of-Debt Capital and Corporate Disclosure Policy," Discussion Paper 2005-67, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    19. Aslan, Hadiye & Easley, David & Hvidkjaer, Soeren & O'Hara, Maureen, 2011. "The characteristics of informed trading: Implications for asset pricing," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(5), pages 782-801.
    20. Chen, Kevin C.W. & Chen, Zhihong & Wei, K.C. John, 2009. "Legal protection of investors, corporate governance, and the cost of equity capital," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 273-289, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:reveco:v:27:y:2013:i:c:p:611-620. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620165 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.